Tony Dungy says Peyton Manning used to complain about family day practices because the kids were too distracting, and says years later in Denver Peyton was the one demanding they bring it back because of how special he realized it was to have his two kids at practice “I started out with the Steelers, and Chuck Noll, family was very important. We always had what we called Family Saturday. We’d have a short practice, bring your kids, they could come in the locker room, they could go on the field, and that’s the way we did it.” “So when I went to Tampa, I did that. It took the players a little while to adjust. I went to Indy, introduced that, said, ‘This is how we’re going to do it.’ Well, Peyton, being a perfectionist, he’d always have like 15 plays he wanted to run again on Saturday morning to make sure we got them right. And we got kids out there, and he’s saying, ‘We don’t have the concentration level we need.’” “So every month, every five weeks, he’d come talk to me: ‘Can we just leave the kids in the locker room? Do we need them out there?’ I’d say, ‘Trust me. We’ll be okay.’ Well then, fast-forward, he goes to Denver and I’m sent out there to do a piece on him. We’ve got him on opening night. So I get there and Brandon Stokley, who was with us in Indy, comes up to me and says, ‘You’ll never guess what Peyton did. You’ll never guess what Peyton did.’” “He went to Coach Fox and said, ‘We’ve got to put in Family Saturday.’ So now he’s got two that he wants to bring. But it really did my heart good, his final press conference when they won the Super Bowl, to see his son Marshall with him at the podium.” “I mean, it brought it full circle. And I didn’t teach Peyton much about football, but I led him on that path to know that his kids being there were very, very special.”